Fresh Manna
by Pastor Tim Burt
The year was 1986. Renee and I had three small children—and baby makes four. They were two years apart and Stephanie, our oldest was only six. Renee had quit her job as a flight attendant to stay home with the children. That meant I had to find ways to bring home the bacon.
I had a full-time job working for the airlines but that did not bring home enough money to pay the bills. And let me include this statement because I do feel it’s important: Renee and I have never missed tithing 10% percent of our income to the Lord plus giving offerings as we felt led to, no matter what financial state we were in. It wasn’t some legalistic obligation. We could just clearly see that God’s Word said that we should honor the Lord with the first ten percent of everything we make and we wanted to worship Him with it. In regards to our faith, we saw it as putting our money where our mouth was—our action to our faith. So even in our poorest times, we put God first.
As I was saying, there were times where we didn’t have enough money to put food on the table. Because of God’s promises to meet our needs, we refused to panic at times like this. Instead we’d rendezvous morning and night, thanking Him in prayer for meeting our needs, as instructed to by God’s Word. Philippians 4:6 (NIV) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Was the opportunity to become anxious there? Absolutely! But we dealt with it each and every time! Panic was not acceptable. Prayer, letting God’s Word encourage our hearts, and seeking God for wisdom was acceptable! And now looking back over all those years with hindsight, the results were a thousand miraculous touches of God’s love and grace to carry us and bless us all the way through!
The Lord will encourage you through the promises of His Word each day, but seldom does that encouragement carry over to the next day. You have to go back to Him and be refreshed in it day-by-day. Psalm 103:4-5 (NLT) says, “He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!” And, Psalm 68:19 (NIV) says “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” So, in all this we would read the word of God to encourage our hearts and keep us strong in faith putting anxiety under our feet.
Romans 1:17 tells us that those who have received Jesus will be those who walk out this life by faith! “The just shall live by faith.” The walk of faith is exactly that—a walk of trusting God’s Word and promises each day! Faith believes and trusts. A miraculous life is the result! Learn to trust Him today!
Psalms 84:11 (NLT) “For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.”
In His Love,
Pastor Tim Burt
